De la Maisonneuve, having returned to Geneva after Easter, was about to start again for Lyons. Farel, knowing that his friend, De la Forge, the merchant of Paris, would be going also to that city at this season of the year, gave Baudichon a letter for his Paris brethren, at that time so afflicted, directing his letter _to the holy vessel elect of God_. ‘Jesus,’ he wrote to this little flock in the capital, ‘is the rock of offence against which the world has fought since the beginning of time, and will always fight; but its efforts are vain. No council can withstand God, and if the wicked lift their horns, they shall be broken.’ He then solicited the intercession of the members of the church in behalf of his brother. ‘I pray you,’ he said, ‘speak of my brother in that quarter where you know better than myself that it is expedient to do so. What! a protracted detention, the confiscation of his property, six hundred crowns which the bishop has extracted from him—is not that enough? Oh! that the poor fellow could be set at liberty! All here who fear the Lord entreat you to exert yourselves for him.’[507] The evangelicals of Geneva were interested in the fate of their reformer’s brothers. At the same time Farel wrote also to De la Forge, commending his brother to him, and knowing the perils with which the Parisian merchant was threatened, he added: ‘If we have Jesus, that heavenly treasure cannot be taken from us: let us march onwards, though all the world should rise against Him.’ In treating of our reformers, we naturally bestow attention on their labors, struggles, writings, and trials; it is well, however, to enter sometimes into the inner sanctuary of their hearts and of their domestic lives. We are touched and rejoice to find there such abundance of the most legitimate and tenderest of human affections. They were men as well as Christians. This fact is a proof of the sincerity of their piety; it is like a spring of pure water gushing up on a field of battle, refreshing and reviving those whom so many struggles might have wearied. Footnote 493: Froment, an eye-witness, says (_Gestes de Genève_, p. 82) that Farel preached ‘in the grand auditory of the convent of Rive, without entering the church.’ Father Courtelier, in his evidence at Lyons (_Procès inquisitionnel_, p. 322), says that Farel preached ‘in the same church and pulpit as himself.’ But Froment’s evidence is corroborated by the Register of the Council of Geneva, which says, that the meeting was held in the cloister or auditory. Courtelier, no doubt only meant to say that Farel preached in the same edifice as himself, without strictly designating the place. Footnote 494: MS. du Procès inquisitionnel de Lyon, p. 323. Footnote 495: Sane me, tam vehementer conturbarunt tua illa fulgura.’—Calvini _Epp._ Footnote 496: Ancillon, _Vie de Farel_. Footnote 497: ‘Savourer la grâce ... avalée sans la goûter.’ Footnote 498: